October 2022 Question Request
basu.substack.com
October 2022 Question Request
That time of the month again—send us any and all questions (by replying to this email or commenting on this post) and we’ll answer as many as we can. We didn’t get around to the Q&A post last month, but we still have the questions you submitted and will answer them in this month’s post. As always, if you see someone else has asked your question in the comments, give it a like (by clicking the heart button). The more likes, the more likely we are to answer that question.
The PPI for Final Demand Construction has shot upwards 28.66% over the past 18 months. This index only goes back to Jan 2010 and, until Mar 2021, it was a fairly steady rising slope of about 2.5% per year. Do we have any Final Demand data that goes back further in time that could give us an idea of what might happen after the current peak? Should we expect it to regress to the mean or will it just flatten out and continue its earlier lower rate of increase?
How does the BLS define "trade services" in the PPI, especially as it relates to the various PPI's for construction?